Travel during Pregnancy - Baby on Board

This entry was posted on November 17, 2015 by Wendy Yang.

With the holidays just around the corner and the year finally winding down, we discuss some tips on travel during pregnancy. We chatted to Travel Smart Travel Safe and asked them for their best tips during the holiday season.

Travel during Pregnancy

Tips for Travel during Pregnancy:

Some expectant mothers are understandably wary and cautious about planning a trip with a baby on board and whether you are going by plane, train or automobile, all modes of transport have their own unique set of challenges. We give you some guidelines on how to travel during pregnancy and some tips on what you need to do.

Travel during Pregnancy is about making a series of decisions based on common sense. You also need to take into account important factors such as: how many weeks into your pregnancy you will be when you intend to take your journey.

Discuss your travel plans

There are plenty of very useful tips available about traveling during pregnancy and when you take sensible precautions and seek medical advice where necessary, there is often no reason why you can’t travel, up to a certain point.

Most doctors will probably suggest that you avoid making any travel plans beyond 32 weeks into your pregnancy.

Although it is still even feasible from a medical perspective to travel right up to the final stages of your pregnancy, you will often find that the general advice would be to restrict your travel plans to within those first 32 weeks.

Giving where you want to

One of the fundamental reasons why you may wish to avoid any long journeys in the final stages of your pregnancy is more to do with the fact that you will have more control over where you give birth to your child, rather than due to serious medical concerns.

You should always discuss your travel plans with your doctor and seek their opinion on whether you are deemed to be safe to travel but it is also a valid point to consider that if you restrict your movements after 32 weeks, you won’t end up delivering in a strange environment and won’t have to rely on an obstetrician you have never met before.

Giving birth exactly where you intend to is much less stressful than facing an emergency situation away from home, so for this reason alone you may want to think about your travel plans once you enter the third trimester of your pregnancy.

Sensible packing

Having weighed up the options and decided to get on the plane for a trip while pregnant, it makes sense to ensure that you pack for a pregnancy situation.

This means packing things like compression socks to limit the prospect of swelling and blood clots as a result of a flight at altitude and don’t forget your antacids and pregnancy vitamins as well as maybe ginger lollies, which are considered good for combatting nausea.

Plenty of water is also a must, as you want to make sure you keep your fluid levels up throughout the journey. Make a list of everything you need and tick it off as you pack, because even the most organized woman can get a case of “baby-brain”, which makes remembering everything you need more challenging than it would be in normal circumstances.

Making travel plans while pregnant is perfectly feasible, as long as you take medical advice and plan your trip in advance so that you are prepared for the journey.

Graco provides innovative baby products to millions of families across the world. By combining comfort, safety and fashion, we are able to offer you products that you will love and trust. Browse our range of products online.